Men's Crew Set for Sunday's Eastern Sprints
May 20, 2006 | Men's Rowing
ON TAP: Of the 16 schools competing for the title at the 2006 EARC “Eastern” Sprints in Worcester, Mass., on May 21, the BU heavyweights are seeded eighth in the varsity race behind nationally top-ranked Princeton, fourth-ranked Brown, fifth-ranked Harvard, sixth-ranked Wisconsin, ninth-ranked Northeastern, eighth-ranked Syracuse and 10th-ranked Yale. The Terriers will also compete in the second varsity eights and third varsity fours, along with the first and second freshman eights.
MORNING MATCH-UPS: Below is a list of where the Terriers are seeded for this year’s Eastern Sprints and against whom they will be rowing in the morning heats.
Varsity Eight: BU is seeded eighth and will row against second-seeded Brown, fifth-seeded Northeastern, 11th-seeded Cornell, 14th-seeded Rutgers and unseeded Holy Cross.
Second Varsity Eight: BU is ranked seventh, which is the highest ranking of any Terrier boat this year, and will row against top-seeded Harvard, sixth-seeded Yale, 12th-seeded Columbia and 13th-seeded Rutgers.
Third Varsity Four: This unseeded event will take place as a Grand Final only during the morning heats and will feature BU, Delaware, Brown, Northeastern and two Georgetown boats.
Freshman Eight: BU is ranked ninth and will be matched against third-seeded Princeton, fourth-seeded Penn, 10th-seeded Georgetown, 15th-seeded Dartmouth and 16th-seeded MIT.
Second Freshman Eight: The Terriers are seeded seventh, and will row against second-seeded Harvard, third-seeded Wisconsin and sixth-seeded Cornell.
VS. OPPONENTS: Earlier this year, four of the five Terrier boats rowed against at least one of their morning opponents. Below is how each fared.
Varsity Eight: The Terriers have rowed against three of their four morning opponents at some point during the spring season. Both top-seeded Brown and fifth-seeded Northeastern posted narrow victories over BU, while the Terriers record a convincing win against 14th-seeded Rutgers. The loss to Brown came in the last regular-season regatta, as the Bears used just under a length (Brown 5:43.16, BU 5:49.13) to grab the Michalson Cup (last year the Terriers lost to Brown by nearly 10 seconds a week before the Sprints, then came back to beat the Bears by a half-second margin in the Grand Final). Meanwhile the loss to Northeastern came in the spring-opener (Northeastern 6:03.39, BU 6:07.34), while the win over Rutgers came on April 15 (BU 5:59.4, Rutgers 6:08.6).
Second Varsity Eight: In second varsity eight action, the Terriers have posted wins versus their two lower-seeded opponents, while they have yet to face the pair of higher seeds. The victories came against 12th-seeded Columbia and 13th-seeded Rutgers in back-to-back weekends in April. First, BU topped Columbia by nearly 30 seconds (BU 5:54.4, Columbia 6:24.2) on April 15, then won by about a length versus Rutgers (BU 5:55.0, Rutgers 6:01.7) on April 22.
Third Varsity Four: The Terriers have rowed against two of their five varsity four opponents, as they fell to Northeastern (NU 6:28.9, BU 6:55.2) on April 22 and to Brown (Brown 7:03.3, BU 7:08.2) on May 6.
Freshman Eight: The BU freshman boat has slightly less experience versus its opponents, having only gone head-to-head with Dartmouth on April 15. The Terriers came up the winner with a time of 5:52.0, exactly 12 seconds ahead of the Big Green’s time of 6:04.0.
Second Freshman Eight: In the second freshman race, BU has yet to face Harvard, Wisconsin or Cornell.
BU IN THE SPRINTS: Although the Terriers have yet to take the title since the inception of the Eastern Sprints in 1946, BU earned its best overall varsity finish last season when the team placed fourth. Not only was last year BU’s best ever finish, but it also marked the Terriers’ first trip to the Grand Final since 1990, when the team placed sixth. Since then, the Terriers had only finished as high as eighth on four occasions (1994, 1995, 2003 and 2004).
16TH FOR PRATT: This marks the 16th Eastern Sprints that BU Head Coach Rodney Pratt will be coaching the Terrier varsity boat, although he previously coached Navy’s freshman crew in the Sprints.
SPRINTS SEEDINGS HISTORY: The Terriers’ lowest seeding in the varsity heavyweight event under Pratt was 13th during a three-year span (1999-2001), while the Terriers’ eight seed this year ties their previous high (1998). Last year, BU held the nine seed and finished fourth overall, as the Terriers have finished at least three places higher than their ranking in each of the last three Sprints (2003 - 12th seed, 8th place; 2004 - 11th seed, 8th place; 2005 - 9th seed, 4th place).
A LOOK AT THE VARSITY: BU’s 1V finished the spring dual season with a 5-4 record, with wins over Dartmouth, then No. 20 Rutgers, No. 19 Columbia, No. 20 Oregon State and MIT. Further, the victories over Dartmouth and Rutgers gave the Terriers their first Bill Cup victory since 1991. Meanwhile, all four losses came to crews that were ranked among the nation’s top 10 at the time of the race, including No. 8 Northeastern, No. 9 Syracuse, No. 7 Wisconsin and No. 4 Brown. The current line-up in the experienced BU boat boasts four seniors (two co-captains) and five juniors.
CHANGING LINE-UP: The current varsity eight configuration represents a vastly different line-up from the last race. The only seats that remain the same are the one, five and seven seats, along with the coxswain. Jozef Klaassen out with an illness, who previously rowed in the six seat, Ian Adams moved down to the 2V and both Mike Sugar and Fergus Hodgson are up from the 2V. Some major changes within the boat include William Daly (previously the stroke) switching spots with Eric Millard (previously the two seat). Millard is one of three in the boat who have only been rowing since coming to BU.
MASS. NATIVES: Between the varsity and freshman squads, a total of eight rowers hail from the Commonwealth, including Shawn Amand (Marshfield), Cody Gantz (Wayland), Matt Seminerio (Melrose), Matt Trevithick (Hingham), Lukasz Turloski (Boston), Doud Flood (Southborough), Mike Iodice (Weston) and Stefan Seitler (Eastham). Seven of the eight (not including Shawn Amand) are expected to row in the Sprints.
INTERNATIONAL FLAIR: Ten members of the Terrier crew come from countries outside the United States. Coming from Canada are Brandon Bately (Grimsby, Ont.), Michael Cheng (Toronto, Ont.) and Graham Leitch (London, Ont.). From Germany are Andreas Brinck (Essen), Florian Mennigen (Mustin) and Jens Robatzek (Stralsund). Hailing all the way from New Zealand are Fergus Hodgson (Ngaruawahia) and Jozef Klassen (Whakatane). Finally, Meindert Klem comes from Ouderkerk, The Netherlands, and Anthony Mullin is from Morley, England. Meanwhile, 15 of the U.S. states are represented on the team, including Massachusetts (8), New York (6), Florida (5), New Jersey (4), California (2), Connecticut (2), Maryland (2), New Hampshire (2), Pennsylvania (2), Colorado (1), Illinois (1), Kansas (1) and Washington (1).
BU BOATINGS:
1ST VARSITY 8
c Alex Hasslacher (Sr.)
8 Eric Millard (Jr.)
7 Jens Robatzek (Jr.)
6 Andreas Brinck (Jr.)
5 Florian Mennigen (Sr.)
4 Mike Sugar (Jr.)
3 Fergus Hodgson (Sr.)
2 William Daly (Sr.)
1 Cody Gantz (Jr.)
2ND VARSITY 8
c Andrea Rosmann (So.)
8 Graham Leitch (So.)
7 Brandon Batey (So.)
6 Matthew Trivithick (So.)
5 Ian Adams (So.)
4 Chris Klotzbach (So.)
3 Anthony Mullin (Sr.)
2 Lukasz Turolski (So.)
1 Russ Cohn (Sr.)
3RD VARSITY 4
c Michael Cheng (Sr.)
4 Matthew Seminerio (So.)
3 Jonathan Czerepak (So.)
2 Steven Pytlar (So.)
1 Andre Guzman (So.)
1ST FRESHMAN 8
c Devin Maloney (Fr.)
8 Josh Novak (Fr.)
7 Meindert Klem (Fr.)
6 Harrison Macris (Fr.)
5 Joe Bittner (Fr.)
4 Mike Iodice (Fr.)
3 Manuel Portalatin (Fr.)
2 Andrew Roth (Fr.)
1 Stefan Seitler (Fr.)
1ST FRESHMAN 8
c Devin Maloney (Fr.)
8 Josh Novak (Fr.)
7 Meindert Klem (Fr.)
6 Harrison Macris (Fr.)
5 Joe Bittner (Fr.)
4 Mike Iodice (Fr.)
3 Manuel Portalatin (Fr.)
2 Andrew Roth (Fr.)
1 Stefan Seitler (Fr.)
